December 31, 2012

Tony Romo: I feel as though I let our team down

Tony Romo’s critics will be heard loudly this week as the Cowboys quarterback is now 1-for-6 in win-or-go-home games.

The Cowboys have not won the NFC East since 2009, and for the second season in a row, the Cowboys had a chance to win the division in the NFL’s final game of the regular season.

But Romo is not concerned about his legacy.

"Your legacy will be written when you are done playing the game," Romo said. "When it is over with, you’ll look back and talk about those things. It is disappointing not being able to get over that hump, but I also know that football is the ultimate team sport and I need to continue to improve and our football team does to get there."

Romo finished 20 for 37 for 218 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions, a 55.9 passer rating. He was walking gingerly afterward, having cracked a rib on his left side on a second-quarter hit by Redskins cornerback Josh Wilson.

In the four games in December before Sunday’s, Romo had 10 touchdowns and one interception. But when his team needed him most, he wasn’t at his best.

"It definitely stings when you lose a game like this," Romo said. "We had to fight like heck to get in this position. All you can think about is what you didn’t accomplish right now. That is all that is going through my brain. I know at some point we’ll look back and say this team fought hard and didn’t give in in a lot of difficult, difficult situations. I know we were behind in probably every ball game we played, and we had to overcome a lot to put ourselves in this position when other teams couldn’t, so I’m proud of the guys for that. Saying that, obviously it doesn’t feel like that right now. It feels like you didn’t accomplish what you set out to do, and that’s all you think about and feel right now. It just does not feel good, and I feel as though I let our team down. We’ve done such a good job in those last five or 10 minutes to win a lot of games and come back and do that. We were in that position again, and that’s on me and that is a very frustrating and a hard thing to think about just because you want to be in that position, and we have been so much and been successful. It’s just very hard to think about."